Enda shoved the keycard into the slot and a panel opened up, revealing basement floors. "Which one?" he asked.
"Start with the first," Ciel replied. "We'll wipe them all out."
Jerry turned to Ciel. "You're the best strategist of the four of us when it come to uncharted territory and mass outnumberment. What do you want us to do?"
Ciel just nodded. "Denis, you take care of the cameras. I don't care if you break their lenses or create a smokescreen, or just put them in a loop, but do it quickly."
Denis bit his lip. "I'd need my laptop."
Ciel reached under the hem of his outfit and slide a silver laptop from the layers. "Will this work?" he asked.
Denis' eyes brightened as he took the computer. "It'll be perfect. I'll have the cameras on a loop as soon as I can."
"Jerry, Enda, go long-range. As I only have two guns on me right now, I'm going close-quarters combat."
"Be careful not to make too much of a mess," Enda said.
"Why not?" Ciel asked. "We'll blow this whole place sky high. My only concern is getting blood on the dress."
"Where're here," Enda said, taking out the keycard, drawing two guns.
Jerry accepted a rifle Enda took from somewhere in his dress. "Everyone ready?" he asked, smirking
Ciel took off his mask and placed it on the side of his head. "Enda, give me your makeup bag."
"What?" he asked, blinking.
"Please, we don't have all day. Denis, hold the doors." Ciel took the bag from Enda and quickly, without a mirror, dusted the powder over his face, removed his glasses, stowing them in the bag, dusting silver eyeshadow over his eyelids, accenting the dark blue with eyeliner, and painting his lips red with the lipstick. He handed the bag to the left, where Enda had been standing, but Enda plucked it out of his hand a few feet further.
"You really are basically blind without your glasses," he said, amused. "And you make one hella-gorgeous woman."
"It's unnerving, actually," Jerry said coughing into his hand.
"You're a hot babe," Denis said, glancing up at him before looking back at the computer. He pursed his lips. "I'll need to get to the cameras first to get access to their footage before I play the loop. I don't know if the guards simply stand there the whole time or if they take rounds."
"I figured as much," Ciel replied. "That's why I'm going as a woman." He rummaged in his dress again, pulling a whole bottle of wine. He corked it with his teeth before chugging the whole thing.
"Whoa. I've heard about your legendary alcohol tolerance before, but that's just ridiculous," Jerry whistled as Ciel pulled another bottle and chugged that one, too.
When he finished it, his cheeks were delicately flushed and he was a bit unsteady. "Open the doors," he said, words slightly slurred. "Hide. Don't let them see you until I give you the signal."
The guards in the hallway stood at attention as the doors opened, but blinked in confusion as a woman, a beautiful, gorgeous woman stumbled out of the elevator.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" one barked at her.
She looked up, frightened. "I just pressed the first floor button! Where am I?" she asked.
One of the guards reached out and grabbed her arm. "You need to get out of here."
But the woman just looked at the man's arm before bursting into tears. "Don't touch me! Please, it hurts! Why are you so meeeeeeeeeaaaan?!?!" she wailed, collapsing to the floor, tears falling to the floor around her.
The guards rushed forward, trying to soothe the young woman, and they didn't notice six needles bury themselves in the plastic frame of the six cameras, a sticky note plastering itself to the lens.
"First my mother sold me off to some mean man who hit me, and now I'm stuck in god-knows-where with a bunch of mean people!" she cried.
"A-ah! I-I'm sorry! What's your name, little one?" one of the guards said, trying to calm her down.
She looked up at them, teary-eyed. "My name is Ciel," she whimpered.
"And your surname?" another asked.
Her lips curled into a bitter smile as she remembered what her true job here was. "Michaelis. Ciel Michaelis."
It was only a matter of seconds before Ciel was striding back toward the elevator doors, the eight guards laying in pools of their own blood, the heads sitting detached in the corner in which Ciel had kicked them.
The other just watched him as he walked back into the elevator.
"Bring us to floor two," he ordered, pulling the pins from two grenades and tossing them into the hallway.
They were already halfway to basement floor two when the grenades went off.
"Aren't you worried about reinforcements?" Jerry asked.
Ciel shook his head. He explained, "Since this place is so damn secretive and covered in security, it's pretty safe to assume this is the only elevator. And, typically, when a person goes down, the people below can't get up, and the people above can't go down, right? They have to wait until the elevator's car drops them off at the target destination. But there's a way around it, too, a way children always love to pull." Ciel reached over and pressed the three other buttons on the basement floors and smiled. "There. Problem solved. Now, let's have some fun, right?" he asked, a mad smile crossing his lips.
Enda bit his bottom lip, sharing a look with the others. Ciel when he was serious was frightening. Ciel when he was angry was deadly. But this Ciel... Ciel when he had no control over his emotions... was heartless, merciless, and cruel.
The doors slid open, and Ciel darted through them like a ghost, mask, hair, and long robes giving him an inhuman quality as he whirled around like he was dancing again, this time among blood and death instead of people and swishing gowns.
When all that remained were corpses, he walked back into the elevator. "Jerry, handle the next floor. Enda, Denis, take the forth. I'm taking out the fifth. Plant the explosives."
"Sir..." they said.
Ciel dropped them off, one by one, before riding alone to the last floor. As the doors opened, he strode into a lab. Scientists and guards and test subjects alike all stared at him as he stepped closer.
"Who are you?" a guard ordered.
"I am known as Phantomsight," Ciel replied.
"Like I'd believe that. All that people know about you is that mask, the hair, and that sniper rifle you carry."
"Oh, really? Would you like to know why so much about me is kept secret?" he asked. Ciel drew the first sword before sheathing it again.
One of the guards let out a choked gasp before his top half slid off his bottom half, splattering all the nearby people and machinery in blood.
Ciel smiled, tilting his head as he took a step forward, drawing his sword fast as lightning before sheathing it once again.
Another guard went down, a long, deep slice going from nose to groin.
"Any guesses?" he asked.
The other guards fired their guns but Ciel just unsheathed both swords, running at them with a wicked gleam in his eyes and a cruel, mad smile on his lips. "Wrong answer," he said.
The lab was painted red, the color dripping from the walls, the ceilings, the machinery. And off of the twin swords Ciel sheathed at his side. The hem of his dress dragged in the blood, his feet sinking into inches of it as he made his way to the elevator.
But only the tips of his hair and the hem of the dress were stained red, not a speck of blood anywhere else on the white fabric.
Ciel reached down, touching the blood with his index finger before bringing it to his lips, repainting them red as blood. As the elevator doors opened, the blood flowed into the shaft, making the floor sticky as Ciel walked to the panel and pressed the level four button.
Enda and Denis joined him, unharmed, and both of them whispered, "For the people you love."
"Anata ga aisuru hitobito no tame ni," Ciel replied back, regaining a bit of clarity and a bit of that wall he normally kept up, to hide the emotions underneath.
As Jerry walked in, he also said, "For the people you love."
Ciel responded once again, and this time the wall rebuilt completely, his mask solidifying even as he took it off. "Denis, as soon as everyone leaves, blow the place to hell."
"Of course."
Ciel looked at his dress a second before the doors opened to the main floor again. He'd have to fabricate an accident. "Get back to the party and divise an excuse. Tell them I tripped in the hall to the restroom and cut myself up."
They left, and Ciel jammed the keycard into the slot, forcing it deeper, til it was irrevocably stuck. He drew the top sword and stabbed it into the basement panel, destroying the internal parts.
Then Ciel walked out of the elevator and down the main hallway. He found a stand with a vase in the hall to the bathroom full of roses.
He bumped his leg into it, tripping over the stand, before falling into the shards of the vase as it shattered. Even for him, it hurt quiet a bit as he slipped in the shards, cutting himself up even more. His palms, left arm, neck, and his legs all barked in pain as he slipped again. "Dammit," he snarled. Why were these tile floors so smooth?
Then he heard running footsteps as several people rounded the bend from the ballroom to here.
"Oh my God! Are you alright?" President Jaeyline gasped, rushing over, fussing, but she didn't know where to put her hands.
"I'm fine, My Lady," Ciel replied. "I just tripped." He genuinely winced as he stood, the glass inside his wounds scraping.
"We need to get you to a hospital," Otogi said, reaching for a phone.
"There's a phone in my pocket," Ciel replied. "My doctor's number is in the phone. Her name is Dr. Ishida."
Otogi took the phone and dialed the number. "Yes. Hello, this is Otogi Toro. Ciel was injured at the party. Do you think you can send an ambulance? Hmm? Yes, of course. Thank you." He hung up, handing the phone to President Jaeyline. "We need to carry you outside."
"Just get me up, and I can walk," Ciel said. Then he felt a terrifying stare to his right, making the hair on the back of his neck rise. He almost wished he hadn't looked when he saw President Jaeyline, her face looking like one of the anime character's Ciel had watched when he was a child. He could practically see the flames behind her. "M-Miss Jaeyline... your image..." he said warily.
"Help you get on your feet and you will walk? My ass!" she snarled, the flames in her eyes growing fiercer.
Ciel cried out in surprise as he was suddenly lifted into the air.
"Fuck the stretcher! If that ambulance isn't here within ten minute's, I'm buying the hospital!" Jaeyline carried Ciel through the building and outside, keeping him in her arms until the ambulance arrived, muttering the whole while, her aura flaming.
"Oh my God! Are you okay?" Dr. Ishida asked as she jumped from the back of the ambulance before it came to a full stop.
"Get him to the hospital right away! If he has any permanent scars, I'll demolish your building!" Jaeyline threatened as she carefully put Ciel on the stretcher.
"We'll do all we can," Ishida promised. She gave a look that read "WTF?" to Ciel as she glanced back at the raging Jaeyline.
He just shook his head and gave a wry smile.
In the ambulance, Ciel winced as Dr. Ishida picked out the glass shards from his wounds, stitched them up, and bandaged them. "You can let me off here," he said, standing and stretching.
Dr. Ishida nodded and called for the ambulance to stop. She bit her lip. "One of your friends said to give this to you," she said, handing him the Hecate.
Ciel slung it over his shoulder as he jumped from the back of the ambulance. Before he could vanish into the darkness, Ishida called, "I hear you're going to see you mother again within the month." Ciel froze. "I am. What about it?" he asked.
"Just... make sure you come see me afterword. So we can take care of your injuries."
"Of course, Dr. Ishida. Good night." Ciel disappeared into the darkness.
.
Liam Rosenblade was walking home that night with his fiance. He laughed with her, kissed her a few times, as they walked down the streets, barely illuminated by street lamps.
This man was still too young, ignorant of the dangers that lurked at every corner for someone of his status.
As Phantomsight watched him, black framed glasses laying next to him, he also moved the barrel of the gun. He kept his inhuman eyes on the target's face, the gun trained on his right eye.
Liam Rosenblade loved with all his heart. A foolish mistake. But that fact made Phantomsight pause as his finger touched the trigger. Liam did something that Phantomsight had never had the chance to do, something that made the world a little lighter.
But then his finger slammed on the trigger, and a second later, Liam Rosenblade fell to the stones, dead. Phantomsight jumped down from the rooftop, landing beside his fiance.
"You did well," she said, smiling cruelly. "Now for your rewar--" Her eyes widened as Phantomsight shoved a hidden blade into her throat. "You... ho...w could y...ou?" she gurgled, choking on her own blood, before falling over the body of her beloved.
"No," Phantomsight whispered, "How dare you. Anata ga aisuru hitobito no tame ni. For the people you love." He turned away from the dead couple. That man offered a light in a dark world, but Ciel was nothing more than a well-trained tool used to destroy that light. He laughed quietly to himself. "For the people you love..."
The night looked a little darker as Ciel vanished into the shadows, nothing more than a ghost... a phantom in the moonlight.
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Cherry Ishida - F - 37 years old
Likes - taking care of children, mothering Ciel, healing people.
Dislikes - people who hurt others without reason, bullies, permanent scars, phone calls from boss.
Strengths - calming people, caring and patient heart, trauma surgery, strong stomach.
Weaknesses - pet fur, smell of decay, spiders.